August 23: Day 23 - Appeal

Doctor's appointment this morning.  Already had the blood work done, so I had scrambled eggs for breakfast!  Here is what I've figured out:  Serving food on a colorful plate makes the food so much more appealing.  Eating food is about more than just consuming the food.  We eat to be social, we taste, we smell, but we also want the food to look appetizing.  I've always said the best way to serve leftovers is on colorful plates with a fancy table setting!  I love the contrasting colors on a dark plate.

BREAKFAST:

Had those scrambled eggs along with some strawberries.  Ate my breakfast in bed.  Being served breakfast in bed would be the ultimate, but even making my own breakfast and crawling back into bed to eat it is sweet.  There's that appeal of being comfy cozy, relaxed, and not in a hurry that makes it nice.

LUNCH:

The eggs really held me.  I didn't eat lunch until 1:00 p.m.  I know this sounds awful, but I had salami for lunch.  Just ate the salami - no crackers.   Added some cherries (yep, bought more - organic on sale $3.99#). 

DINNER:

We went to Rafferty's for dinner.  We really like their salads.  I had a pork chop, salad, and fruit.  I was amazed at the amount of fruit I got.  Yumm. 

Already ate part of the fruit.

NOTES:

My blood work came back really good.  My doctor and I discussed the book I'm reading (Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes).  She thinks the information in it is valid.  It really (so far, I haven't finished reading it) advocates eating meat.  My "numbers" (cholesterol) have come down within a month of adding more meat to my diet and eliminating "whites" (bread, potatoes, rice, pasta).  The added benefit to this is that I feel full.  I'm not tempted to snack.  I'm not standing in front of the pantry or refrigerator looking for something to satisfy that empty feeling.  This book explains what happens to food once you've eaten it.  That knowledge helps me to choose more wisely.  It's a tome, for sure.  Six hundred forty pages!  I have it on my Kindle, so it doesn't seem so "weighty!"  Lots of information on research/studies over the years on diet and weight loss. 

Now, I may find out in three months that my blood work has gone crazy and my cholesterol is up.  My doctor doesn't think that will happen on this diet.  She says this diet should work, and I should lose weight - lose weight more slowly than other diets, but lose weight.  I'm hoping so. This goes against current thinking - high carb, low protein/fat.   This is so much easier to manage.  For one, I'm full and satisfied.  The other thing is that I don't have to figure out how many carbs I'm consuming.  I eat meat (no carbs) and vegetables and fruit (complex carbs).  As the book says (and other books have said), we typically don't over eat meat and vegetables - or even fruit.  It's the carbs we binge on - potato chips, cookies, candy, french fries, bread, etc.  Think about it - how many times have you pigged out on apples? 

My wanna-be vegetarian plan has just ridden out of town on the back of a bagel!...at least for now.  We'll see.

Kind of difficult to see, 

but she's drinking out of my glass.

Talking about appeal....my cat has two bowls of water in two different rooms of the house (upstairs and downstairs), but what appeals to her?  My glass of water.  This is one of the disadvantages of not drinking Cokes!